The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 463

ZEND, name applied, mistakenly it would seem, by the Europeans to the ancient Iranian language of Persia, or the language in which the Zend-Avesta is written, closely related to the Sanskrit of the Vedas it appears.

ZEND-AVESTA, the name given to the sacred writings of the Guebres or Pa.r.s.ees, ascribed to Zoroaster, of which he was more the compiler than the author, and of which many are now lost; they represent several stages of religious development, and as a whole yield no consistent system.

ZENITH, name of Arab origin given to the point of the heaven directly overhead, being as it were the pole of the horizon, the opposite point directly under foot being called the Nadir, a word of similar origin; the imaginary line connecting the two pa.s.ses through the centre of the earth.

ZENO, Greek philosopher of the ELEATIC SCHOOL (q. v.), and who flourished in 500 B.C.; was the founder of the dialectic so successfully adopted by Socrates, which argues for a particular truth by demonstration of the absurdity that would follow from its denial, a process of argument known as the _reductio ad absurdum_.

ZENO, Greek philosopher, the founder of Stoic philosophy, born at Citium, in Cyprus, son of a merchant and bred to merchandise, but losing all in a s.h.i.+pwreck gave himself up to the study of philosophy; went to Athens, and after posing as a cynic at length opened a school of his own in the Stoa, where he taught to extreme old age a gospel called Stoicism, which, at the decline of the heathen world, proved the stay of many a n.o.ble soul that but for it would have died without sign, although it is thus "Sartor," in the way of apostrophe, underrates it: "Small is it that thou canst trample the Earth with its injuries under thy feet, as old Greek Zeno trained thee; thou canst love the Earth while it injures thee, and even because it injures thee; for this a Greater than Zeno was needed, and he too was sent" (342-270 B.C.). See STOICS, THE.

ZEn.o.bIA, queen of Palmyra and ultimately of the East, whose ambition provoked the jealousy of the Emperor Aurelian, who marched an army against her, and after a succession of defeats subdued her and brought her to Rome to adorn his triumph as conqueror, though afterwards he presented her with a domain at Tivoli, where she spent the rest of her days in queen-like dignity, with her two sons by her side; she was a woman of great courage and surpa.s.sing beauty. See LONGINUS.

ZEPHANIAH, a Hebrew prophet who prophesied in the interval between the decline and fall of Nineveh and the hostile advance of Babylon; forewarned the nation of the judgment of G.o.d impending over them for their unG.o.dliness, and exhorted them to repentance as the only way of averting the inevitable doom, while he at the same time encouraged the faithful to persevere in their G.o.dly course with the a.s.surance that the day of judgment would be succeeded by a day of glorious deliverance, that they would yet become "a name and a praise among the people of the earth."

ZEPHON (searcher of secrets), name of a cherub sent, along with ITHURIEL (q. v.), by the archangel Gabriel to find out the whereabouts of Satan after his flight from h.e.l.l.

ZEPHYRUS, a personification in the Greek mythology of the West Wind, and in love with Flora.

ZERMATT, a small village of the canton Valais, in Switzerland, 23 in. SW. of Brieg, a great centre of tourists and the starting-point in particular for the ascent of the Matterhorn.

ZERO, a word of Arab origin signifying a cipher, and employed to denote a neutral point in scale between an ascending and descending series, or between positive and negative.

ZEUS, the chief deity of the Greeks, the sovereign ruler of the world, the father of G.o.ds and men, the mightiest of the G.o.ds, and to whose will as central all must bow; he was the son of Kronos and Rhea; by the help of his brothers and sisters dethroned his father, seized the sovereign power, and appointed them certain provinces of the universe to administer in his name--Hera to rule with him as queen above, Poseidon over the sea, Pluto over the nether world, Demeter over the fruits of the earth, Hestia over social life of mankind; to his dynasty all the powers in heaven and earth were more or less related, descended from it and dependent on it; and he himself was to the Greeks the symbol of the intelligence which was henceforth to be the life and light of men, an idea which is reflected in the name Jupiter given him by the Romans, which means "father of the day"; he is represented as having his throne in heaven, and as wielding a thunderbolt in his right hand, in symbol of the jealousy with which he guards the order of the world established under him as chief.

ZEUSS, JOHANN KASPAR, great Celtic scholar, and the founder of Celtic philology, born at Voghtendorf, in Upper Franconia, professor at Bamberg; his great work, "Grammatica Celtica" (1806-1856).

ZEUXIS, famous Greek painter, born at Heraclea, and who flourished from 420 B.C. to the close of the century; was unrivalled in rendering types of sensuous, specially female, beauty, and his princ.i.p.al works are his pictures of "Helen," "Zeus Enthroned," "The Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpent"; he is said to have given away several of his works rather than sell them, as no price could pay him for them.

ZIDON, an ancient town of Phoenicia, 20 m. N. of Tyre, and the original capital.

ZIETHEN, JOHANN JOACHIM VON, Prussian general, born in Russia; entered the army at the age of 15, served as a cavalry officer under Frederick the Great, was one of the greatest of his generals, became his personal friend, and contributed to a great many of his victories, all of which he lived through, spending his days thereafter in quiet retirement at Berlin in favour with the people and in honour to the last with the king; is described by Carlyle at 45 as "beautiful" to him, though with "face one of the coa.r.s.est," but "face thrice-honest, intricately ploughed with thoughts which are well kept silent (the thoughts indeed being themselves mostly inarticulate, thoughts of a simple-hearted, much-enduring, hot-tempered son of iron and oatmeal); decidedly rather likeable" (1699-1786). See Carlyle's "Frederick."

ZIG, a giant c.o.c.k in the Talmud (q. v.), which stands with its foot on the earth, touches heaven with its head, and when it spreads its wings causes a total eclipse of the sun.

ZILLERTHAL, a valley in the Tyrol, watered by the Ziller, an affluent of the Inn, some 400 of the inhabitants of which were in 1837 obliged to seek a home elsewhere because of their opposition to the practice of auricular confession, and which they found near Liegnitz, in Prussian Silesia.

ZIMBABYE, a remarkable ruin in Mashonaland, the remains apparently of some enterprising colony of nature-wors.h.i.+ppers that settled there in ancient times, in the interest of trade presumably.

ZIMMERMANN, JOHAN GEORG VON, Swiss physician, born at Brugg, in the canton of Bern; studied at Gottingen, became the friend of HALLER (q. v.), and settled down to practice in his native town, where he continued 16 years, very successful both in medicine and literature, but "tormented with hypochondria," and wrote his book on "Solitude," which was translated into every European language; wrote also on "Medical Experiences," a famed book in its day too, also on "National Pride," and became "famed throughout the universe"; attended Frederick the Great on his deathbed, and wrote an unwise book about him, "a poor puddle of calumnies and credulities" (1728-1795). For insight into the man and his ways see CARLYLE'S "FREDERICK," a curious record.

ZINDIKITES, a Mohammedan heretical sect, who disbelieve in Allah, and deny the resurrection and a future life.

ZINZENDORF, a German count, born in Dresden; studied at Wittenberg, came under the influence of the Pietist Spener, gave himself up to evangelical labours, and established a religious community on his estate at Herrnhut, in Saxony, consisting chiefly of a body of Moravian Brethren, who had been driven out of Bohemia and Moravia on account of their religious opinions, and were called Herrnhuters, of which he became one of the leaders and chief apostles, labouring far and wide in the propagation of their doctrines and suffering no small persecution by the way; he was an earnest man, the author of religious writings, controversial and devotional; wrote a number of hymns, and died at Herrnhut, from which he was driven forth, but to which he was allowed to return before the end (1700-1760).

ZION, that one of the four hills on which Jerusalem is built, on the SW. of the city, and the site of the palace of King David and his successors.

ZIONISM, the name given a movement on the part of the Jews to re-establish themselves in Palestine as a nation.

ZIRCONIA LIGHT, an intensely brilliant light, similar to the Drummond light, but differing from it chiefly in the employment of cones of zirconium instead of cylinders of lime; it has been superseded by the electric light.

ZIRCONIUM, a metallic element often found in connection with silica, commonly in the form of a black powder.

ZIRKNITZ, LAKE, a high-lying lake in Carniola, 20 m. SW. of Laybach, the waters of which in the dry season will sometimes disappear altogether through the fissures, and in rainy will sometimes expand into a lake 5 m.

long and 3 m. broad.

ZISKA, JOHANN, Hussite leader, born in Bohemia of a n.o.ble family; began life as a page at the court of King Wenceslas, but threw up a courtier's life in disgust for a career in arms; fought and distinguished himself by his valour against the Teutonic knights at Tannenberg in 1410, to their utter defeat; signalised himself afterwards against the Turks, and in 1413 fought on the English side at Agincourt; failing to rouse Wenceslas to avenge the death of HUSS (q. v.) and of JEROME OF PRAGUE (q. v.), he joined the Hussites, organised their forces, a.s.sumed the chief command, and in 1420 gained, with a force of 4000 men, a victory over the Emperor Sigismund with an army of 40,000 mustered to crush him; captured next year the castle of Prague, erected fortresses over the country, one in particular called Tabor, whence the name Taborites given to his party; blind of one eye from his childhood, lost the other at the siege of Ratz, fought on blind notwithstanding, gaining victory after victory, but was seized with the plague and carried off by it at Czaslav, where his remains were buried and his big mace or battle-club, mostly iron, hung honourably on the wall close by; that his skin was tanned and made into the cover of a drum is a fable; he was a tough soldier, and is called once and again in Carlyle's "Frederick"

"Rhinoceros Ziska" (1360-1424).

ZITTAU (25), a town of Saxony, 71 m. SE. of Dresden, with a magnificent Rathhaus; stands on a vast lignite deposit; manufactures cotton, linen, machinery, &c.

ZLATOUST (21), a Russian town near the Urals, 130 m. NE. of Ufa, with iron and gold mines near; manufactures sword-blades and other steel ware.

ZOAR, a small village of Ohio, U.S., 91 m. S. of Cleveland, and the seat of a German Socialistic community.

ZoCKLER, OTTO, German theologian, professor at Greifswald; edited a "Handbuch der theologischen Wissenschaft," and other works; _b_. 1833.

ZODIAC, the name given to a belt of the heavens extending 8 on each side of the ecliptic, composed of twelve constellations called signs of the zodiac, which the sun traverses in the course of a year. These signs, of which six are on the N. of the ecliptic and six on the S., are, commencing with the former, named successively: Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; Gemini, the Twins; Cancer, the Crab; Leo, the Lion; Virgo, the Virgin; Libra, the Balance; Scorpio, the Scorpion; Sagittarius, the Archer; Capricornus, the Goat; Aquarius, the Water-bearer; and Pisces, the Fishes. The sun enters Aries at the spring equinox and Libra at the autumnal equinox, while the first point of Cancer marks the summer solstice, and that of Capricorn the winter. The name Zodiac is derived from the Greek _zoon_, an animal, and has been given to the belt because the majority of the signs are named after animals.